Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was in Australia this week to increase the already strong defense relationship with that marvelous country. That is about the best news coming out of Washington in many a moon. Since it lost its empire, The United Kingdom has always thought of itself, in Harold MacMillan’s phrase, as “punching above its weight.” That is a somewhat dubious claim for the Brits (although their army is certainly topnotch), but it is certainly not the case for the Aussies. In every American war since World War II, Australia has sent troops. Given its small population, the contribution has been sizable and each soldier himself punches above his weight.
More than that, its troops receive full political support from its political leaders. When I was in Afghanistan, the German Army was prohibited by German law from operating, even patrolling, more than five kilometers from a full field hospital, making it impossible for its troops to range far enough to be effective in the province it was assigned to protect. Even more limiting, the French army was prohibited from leaving the City of Kabul. This has nothing to do with the troops. The young German soldiers I met were very frustrated with their “rules of disengagement” and I worked with a brilliant young and very frustrated French Captain, the liaison to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in Kabul, who was prohibited from visiting the very tribes he was supposed to be familiar with.
The Australian Army suffered none of those limitations. Armies, like the government for which they work, reflect their culture, the culture of their institution and the culture of the country they serve. The culture itself comes from the people themselves and a healthy culture will recognize the necessity of its young men to risk their lives for the common good.
A few days ago, I had dinner with two World War II veterans, both of whom had served in the South Pacific. There was an American who had served on the USS Honolulu and had a number of stories about life in the U.S. Navy, most of them involving the large team of supplies and support every U.S. serviceman received. There was also an Australian, named John, who had served in the Australian Army. Although brimming with the confidence which is a trademark of his stereotypical countrymen, he wasn’t the sort to brag about himself, but his war was a rugged one.
The Australian army would give him a bag of food and a rifle, put him on a boat and drop him off alone hundreds of miles behind Japanese lines, where he was expected to work his way inland and harass enemy camps. Must have been rough work, I said. Not really, he replied, I had a jungle to hide in; the trick was to have an escape route. That is one of the admirable things about the Australians. Nothing is too difficult.
It is simply a matter of thinking through the problems and devising solutions for them. John became a sniper at the age of 16. Imagine how many 16 year olds today would accept being dropped off alone, vastly outnumbered by a tough and efficient foe, with a sack of food, a bandolier of ammunition and a dense, disease ridden jungle to protect you.
This toughness is a reflection of the culture and the traditional wanderlust of the Australian. I’ve been to a number of places – Syria, Burma, Ethiopia, for instance – where I’ll never see another Westerner except for a group of Australians, quaffing the local brew in some wayward saloon.
This toughness seems to be in the water. When a young Australian graduates from high school or college, it is traditional for them to go on a “walkabout” for a year or two. This is not an organized stay in Europe, with Daddy a phone call away ready to wire money. It seems to be an opportunity for them to test their mettle and their self sufficiency.
A few years ago, my wife and I were taking a ferry from the Island of Rhodes into Turkey. We got to talking to two young Australian women on their walkabout, neither more than 22 years old. One of them was tall, blonde and very beautiful and her mate was short, dark and a little on the stocky side. They had just hitchhiked across the Sahara Desert. Now apparently, when you hitchhike across the Sahara, your ride will occasionally dump you off at the next oasis and you wait there alone until another ride shows up.
So these young women were all alone at an oasis awaiting their next ride, when in came about ten heavily armed Arab traders leading a long line of camels heavily burdened with goods. The Australian girls were invited to tea and while they were struggling over the language barrier, the Arab chief took aside the short, dark Aussie and indicated that the Arabs would like to buy her girlfriend.
Now the average 22 year old woman in other parts of the world – the average 22 year old civilian no matter what their gender, in fact – would consider herself to have three options: scream, run or fight. This young woman just coolly looked at the chief and asked “how much?” The chief gave a number and the young woman took a minute or two to think before rejecting the offer.
The chief went back to his fellow traders and shortly came back with a higher price. The Australian took just a little longer to think about it before saying “no.” All the while, the blonde was totally oblivious to the fact that her freedom was up for sale. This went on into the evening, until the final offer was for all of the camels, all of the goods on the camels and a sum of money. This time the young Australian took a good half hour examining the teeth and hooves of the camels and inspecting the goods.
Finally, she turned to the chief and apologetically rejected the offer not because it wasn’t generous enough but because the two young women had been mates for so long. The chief, accepting defeat, prepared them dinner and by first light, the camel train went off in one direction and the Aussie girls caught a ride to the coast.
There is something wonderful about a pair of youngsters, barely out of their teens, with the presence of mind and the toughness of character to defuse a situation like that. They managed to get what they wanted, while giving the natives the satisfaction of thinking that they were setting the rules of the transaction. It is even more admirable that they were women. Women create and preserve the culture and the tough mindedness in those young women augurs well for the future of Australian culture.
There is another curious element to this. Most Australians don’t dwell on their heritage. It matters little to them whether their ancestors were Irish or English or Italian or Greek. What matters is that they are Australians. That, too, is part of the strength of the culture.
Australia may very well become the last civilized country on earth.
Thomas F. Berner
www.WeThePeopleBlog.net
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